Busselton 1/2 Ironman - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Would have to be my best swim EVER...fely fantastic, enjoyed it, was turning to head back in thinking wow, I think I can go faster on the way in.

Had a slowish start, and swam way off course in a group, but sat at my own pace and din't worry too much. I managed to draft a few times, felt too slow so pulled past and drafted some more, did this a couple more times.

Got beat up trying to round the first bouy, so went very wide around the second.

The swim back to shore was great, felt really strong, had loads of energy and really tried hard to lift my pace. Drafted a little, but no-one really going at the pace I wanted to.

I picked up my wetsuit on the Thursday night before headinbg down on Friday morning, so this swim ended up being my first swim in the suit...it went very well, no hicups what so ever. ( iwas very worried about it not working out that way)



Nothing...My goal time for the swim was 45 minutes, after training etc this was a realistic time, I was stoked to come out in 38 min, had to look twice at my watch. Just have to train harder on it (some lessons will help) and next year shave a few minutes off.

Took my time in T1, was so happy with my swim time I din't want to leave anything behind and stuff up the swim.

As I said, first time in the wet suit so it took a bit of convinsing to get it off...live and learn.

Packed all my gells, co2 etc etc and off I went.

Will get better at the wetsuit as time goes by...other than that nothing...

My goal time for T1 was 5 mins so I knew I had plenty of time.

Other than it being a very crowded course, I had a great ride, coming in about 12mins inside my goal time.

Lap 1 - 51:33
Felt great, waved to the family, took the corners nice and easy due to all the rain, had all the right drinks and gells, and ended up 4mins inside my goal time.

Lap 2 - 49:18
Had planned to go hard in this lap, so increased my pace a bit, but being careful to keep my heart rate below 160. Again, had all the right fluids and gells, managed to pass without insident and was starting to think, wow, this is going really well, "what will go wrong"...at this stage, i was anticipating a puncture at any minute....

Lap 3 - 49:47
Well...finaly something went wrong...I had been passing people all day, making sure not to draft or block etc etc, then I came up behind a "PACK", it looked like a Saturday morning group ride, I moved out wide behind the 4th guy across waiting to pass and befor I knew it a motorbike official yelled out about 8 numbers including mine, and I had a 5min penalty for drafting...BUGGER...

I figured that was the one thing that was going to go wrong and decided to hammer it back to the penalty box as fast as I could since I had a 5min rest coming my way. Managed to get back to the penalty box about 3 minutes ahead of the rest of the Saturday morning ridersand therfore got out a few minutes ahead.

So taking out the time penalty, I had a 2:30 ride, which I was happy with, even including the time penalty I still beat my goal time, and I wasn't going to let it ruin my day



Yell like buggery at the person on the outside of a four person road block...

I probably drank a bit too much water on the first lap, and thefore spent the second half of lap thinking about needing the toilet, then on the first part of lap 3 had to stop for some releif.

Farly good transition, emptied all my gell wrappers etc etc and loaded up again...

Needed another toilet stop in transition, so definatly drank too much on the bike.

Lap 1 felt fantastic, had to try really hard to hold myself back, because I knew there was still a long way to go. got into a good rythem and was traking along nicely, at about 5:20/km and ~165 hr. Planned to take 43 minutes per lap but promissed myself I would run by feel.

I drank just enough, only water, and had a gell every lap, lap two was comfertable, but my feet started to get blisters from running in very wet socks.

Lap 3 was just hard work, tried to keep the same pace, my my heart rate just wouldn't stay down, I never felt like walking, but was worried about cramping, I have never really cramped before, but felt close on this lap.

The run to the finnish took forever, then I finaly saw the finnish line, and boy was I please, saw the time and was extatic...the girls and wife were waiting at the end, and it was fantastic to see them.

Seeing the family at the turn around point for each lap was magic, and I am sure it kept me going and closed out alot of those negative thoughts I have when running.

I think I could have pushed harder in the run, and this is where I will be consentrating most of my training for next year.

No warm down, ate a bannana and drank some water in the recovery area, chatted to a couple of friends then met the family.

Felt VERY ordinary for a couple of hours after the race, very quezzy and tiered, then managed a bit of food, and things picked up.


Time penalty and toilet stops, in total wasted about 10min. Inexperiance at this distance meant I probably heald back too much on the ride and probably should have pushed a bit more on the last lap of the run.


Loved it....

I set a goal to finnish under 6 hrs, and in my own mind, thought it would be great to come in under 5:40 (but din't tell anyone) to finish in 5:18 with a 5 min penalty was way beyond my wildest dreams...

Now that I have done the distance, I think next year I will be aiming for a sub 5 hr finnish.